A Rajasthan MLA today demanded an action plan for the safety of the people living in villages near Sariska forest area in Alwar, where six people have been killed in panther attacks in recent times.
Taking up the matter during the Zero Hour of the assembly session, National People's Party (NPP) MLA Kirori Lal Meena demanded that the Rajasthan government look into the matter and come out with a concrete plan to deal with the situation.
He also demanded that the government raised compensation given to families of those killed in panther attacks and a task force be created for the protection of the villagers from panthers who stray into villages from the forest area.
Meena said the repeated panther attacks have created curfew-like situation in the villages near the forest area in Alwar where six people died in the panther attack in the last few months.
The Dausa MLA also alleged that two panthers were caught and sent to Jaipur zoo. He claimed the officers of the forest department had referred them as man-eaters in files but they were released and after that the number of attacks increased.
Forest minister Gajendra Singh intervened and said the panther which was caught latest was most likely the one who had attacked humans.
He added that the absence of canine teeth and pugmarks indicated that he was the panther which recently killed three persons.
However, Singh said, the samples of the panther's saliva have been forwarded for examination in Hyderabad and after the report in next two-three weeks, the confirmation will be made if it was the same panther which had attacked humans.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)